PSP Go review: Sony is charging you much more for much less

We've finally had a chance to get to know the PSP Go in detail, and here are …

The new, UMD-less PSP Go is an absolute dream for Sony. Since it lacks a way to play games purchased at retail, Sony gets to set the prices for every piece of content bought on the system. Who cares if the store down the street has a game for $10 cheaper? You can only get your games from one place; competition with discounting and used games is gone. Sony will now be selling you every game that goes into the Go's 16GB of storage, and without the ability to buy or sell used games, Sony now owns every single piece of the market with this system. And without an easy way to switch the battery for hacking purposes, piracy won't be as easy.

Like we said, the PSP Go is great for Sony. For the rest of us, retailers included, not so much.

We bought our system at retail, and there was no line, no risk of a sellout, and no signage or posters in the store hyping the system. It was the most mellow system launch you'll find in this business. The unboxing was impressive, and it's easy to be impressed with how sexy and sleek the PSP Go looks. But now that we've had a day or so to play with it, it's clear that Sony's new portable is nothing but raw deal after raw deal. The complaints are numerous, the slights against consumers are many, and the hardware is flawed. On top of these issues is a price point that's so high it seems like a sick joke in the current economy. The PSP is a great system and a strong platform. The PSP Go is a terrible, terrible deal for everyone but Sony.

The Go's screen is smaller: 3.8" instead of the 4.3" of the older PSP models. The resolution remains the same, however, at 480x272. The action when you slide the screen up to reveal the controls is smooth, and that screen is a dream to play games on. There is no argument to be found about aesthetics; on the surface this is one of the best-looking pieces of consumer electronics out there.

You better have small hands

The PSP Go is surprisingly comfortable in your hands when you're simply holding it, but there's no getting away from the fact the analog nub is very, very close to the face buttons. When the screen is slid up to reveal the controls, it also rests directly in front of the shoulder buttons, which means you can't really rest your fingers there. It's like fighting over the armrest on a plane.

The PSP 3000 allows you to hold the device securely by the sides, but while the PSP Go may look good, the longer you play the more you realize that it's perched somewhat precariously in your hand. I'm not a big guy, but I found the controls less comfortable than the normal PSP setup. If you're a big guy with big hands, I strongly suggest you hold one for a gaming session or two before you buy. The analog nub itself is frightfully small; I felt like my thumb was continually going to slide right off.

Here's a challenge: find a promo shot that shows someone actually playing a game with the analog nub. There's a reason the images all look like the one I included here; things are way too cramped on the system's face.

A cumbersome process

For a product that is tethered to digital downloads, the process of getting to the content is oddly annoying. There is still no background downloading, which means that once you begin to download a game, you can't do anything else until it is finished. While your mileage may vary, I've often found that downloading files from Sony on both the PSP and PS3 can be a slow affair; a 1GB file can sometimes take an hour or more to pull down. For instant gratification junkies, that's no fun... especially when you can't play another game to pass the time.

Even worse, if you lose your signal or get disconnected, your progress is not saved. It took me a few tries to download the entirety of Gran Turismo on the PSP— for some reason, the hardware lost the connection to my wireless router, and each time I had to begin from scratch. That's incredibly annoying, especially when the wireless technology inside the system is somewhat stale.

For some reason, Sony went with the positively ancient 802.11b, which is the same as previous models. For $250, that couldn't have been bumped up to 802.11g? Or even -n? The entire point of the PSP Go hinges on the wireless, digital aspect of the hardware, so why is that hardware so outdated? Why is downloading a game made to be as annoying as possible?

377 Reader Comments

They lost any chance at me as a customer when they didn't take the bolder step of giving it dual thumbsticks. Yes, it would have bifurcated the market, but it would have fixed the mistake of the original PSP and provided a great control mechanism to the smaller, downloadable game market (not to mention PS2/3 ports).

They should have saved all the good ideas for the PSPGo and used them as the basis for the PSP2. As I said in the GESC thread, the PSPGo is a solution looking for a problem. It's a bad sign when even the PlayStation base is largely viewing the Go as more for less.

> "It's hard to pin down who exactly this system is for. People with unlimited gaming budgets?"

That's me, but I'm still not buying a PSP Gouge.

I bought my PS3 near launch at $599 and haven't regretted it. I also own a PS2, Xbox 360 Elite and gaming PC.

I was thinking about adding the PSP Go to my collection when it was first rumored, but every bit of information from Sony has made it less and less appealing. No thanks Sony, I'll probably be getting the PSP-3000 instead of your Two Hundred And Forty-Nine Dollar slap in the face.

I could go on, the start and select buttons are stacked vertically, with the select button on the top of the start button. It's incredibly unintuitive.

As for the screen sliding up and down over the buttons, the hardware doesn't know when it's been closed. It would be great if you could pause the game or put the system to sleep by shutting it, but in a game, nothing happens. I was gobsmacked when I started playing God of War, and shut the system, only to see the game continue with no way to control it.

Maybe this is one of those "new coke" type things, make something new and crappy so everyone appreciates the thing that was older but losing steam. All of a sudden they'll stop selling the go and then drop the price of the PSP 3000 to 150 and it will fly off the shelves! At least, that would be the smart thing to do ... this is Sony. I love my PS3, but it hurts to see these types of blunders.

This was obviously designed by an engineer not someone who plays games. Worse yet, like so many other Sony products it seems conflicting internal interests keep this from being the best at any one thing (or in this case anything at all).

I hope they quickly kill this off otherwise it will be yet another handheld blunder to add to the mix like Game.com and the Nokia taco.

Another downer is if you happen to ever want to play a game that's been released in another region to your own, you can't just import the UMD. PSN is region-locked and even if you manage to create an account on a foreign PSN it won't accept your payment info so you can't buy anything off their store without resorting to prepaid point cards. Which you'd probably have to have shipped to you from overseas.

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It's hard to pin down who exactly this system is for.

Sony executives who have consumed enough of the corporate kool-aid to believe that their consumers are wallets with legs and an insatiable desire for their content. The reality distortion field that seems to isolate Sony's upper management from the real world would make even Steve Jobs envious. I think even staunch Sony Defense Force members are going to struggle to justify this one.

Waaaaahh!!!! What a bunch of babies... I picked one up on day one, haven't put it down all day. Of course, I have a PS3, so I can download games fast. I also already had a strong library of downloadable games. Most of the commenters are just complaining to complain. I am a "glass half full" kinda guy. So, I'm stuffing my Go with tons of stuff. Oh, and I've got one for the "Good" list... You can put downloadable games on multiple systems! I have a Go and my son has a 3000... Now we're teaming up in Monster Hunter, and beating the crap out of each other in Soul Caliber! Two games for the price of one? Yup. If I pick up an old system for my second son, we wont have to fight over games! Copies for everyone! If you don't like it fine... stay away from it. For those of us who've been dying for a more portable PSP, this is it... I LOVE IT!

Ben, you have used the PSP-Go and I haven't, so I'll take your word on the ergonomics and interface problems. But a few things about your review. One, and the main point, the PSP-Go is NOT intended for existing PSP owners, so bringing up the complaint that it makes your existing UMD games useless is well, stupid. If Sony had discontinued the PSP-3000, then sure that would be a valid complaint, but they didn't. The PSP-Go is designed for people who found the existing PSP too big. As for the complaint about the missing 2GB, where were the complaints about iPod's missing storage? My 8GB ipod nano only has 7.3GB actual storage, outrage! And $40 for a 2GB M2 card? I can get a 8GB M2 card for $AU40 (~$US32). Downloading off PSN, never had a problem with speed, what you may be experiencing is a slowdown from the fact that a lot of new PSP-Go owners will be busy downloading games to it, which will make its speed a temporary problem.

This just strikes me as a review from someone who doesn't get the intent of the device, similar to some GT-PSP game reviews (which Ars did very well). If you are an existing PSP owner, this is not for you and wasn't designed for you. Its designed for someone who might have otherwise got a iPod Touch, or who wanted a PSP but it was too big and cumbersome for a portable device. Its a media-savvy, very portable gaming device. It is expensive, Sony have pretty much said that its deliberately that high to provide retailers with extra margin to compensate for no second hand sales, and to get extra money from early adopters. The price will come down, especially if it sells slowly (which I think it will).

Proprietary cables, purely digital sales with no ability to sell them or buy second hand and a glossy yet high priced device are the very hallmarks that have made the Ipod Touch (and ipod in general) the money juggernaut it is. If you want to blame anything, blame the iPod touches success for the PSP-Go model.

DogEars, how do Sony hate their consumers with a passion? Are they holding a gun to their heads and screaming 'Buy it!'? Sony are still selling the existing PSP-3000 at the same price, with it updated to provide it with the same user experience as the PSP-Go (minus Bluetooth). I'd hardly call that 'hate', more like 'giving consumers more choice', which seems the opposite of hate.

Have you tried using iTunes with a PSP? Spoiler warning: it doesn't work very well. Have you tried using the PSP Go to play music when it's closed? Spoiler warning: that's not a touch screen. If you bought a PSP Go instead of a Touch you bought a bottle of root beer instead of a motorcycle.

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It is expensive, Sony have pretty much said that its deliberately that high to provide retailers with extra margin to compensate for no second hand sales, and to get extra money from early adopters.

Sony actually said that to me, and as a gamer it doesn't make me feel better that Sony inflates the price on the hardware to get retailers to stock the hardware so it can inflate the price of games. As for early adopters getting ripped off with the PSP Go, we're in agreement.

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The price will come down, especially if it sells slowly (which I think it will).

Since we also both agree that the product will fail at this price point, what exactly are you defending?

What? I am not defending anything, not everyone on the internet is a fanboy. I agree with you, the PSP-Go is expensive, and will sell slowly. I won't say it will fail, because define failure. For me it would only fail if it didn't pay off its development costs, which given its a reskinned PSP, wouldn't be especially high. Its using an existing network that also supports the 50 million plus user base. The PSP-3000 is still out their at the same lower price selling games and making money for Sony. All I saying is that your review is partially flawed because it assumes the device is meant for existing PSP owners, which its just not. It also makes a few complaints that just don't seem fair when other consumer devices have the same 'flaws' that never get mentioned as such. The iPod touch comment might have been a little off (have to be careful with iPod comparisons, particularly on this site), its more in comparison to say a generic PMP, but with gaming capability and software support. I was thinking of the iPod touches app store more than music playback.

And I have no idea who Warwick Davis is, so unsure how to take that first comment. But not all of us wear cargo pants or carry a manbag (shudder) to carry around a bulky PSP-3000 with games. So a smaller PSP is a good thing.

You clearly hate the PSP-Go, and thats fine, everyone's entitled to an opinion. But I just get the feeling from the review that a large part of that hate is because you haven't realised its not intended for you, but a different consumer that you can't understand.

Originally posted by czechery:But I just get the feeling from the review that a large part of that hate is because you haven't realised its not intended for you, but a different consumer that you can't understand.

The Emperor's New Handheld?

I don't own a PSP yet, and this definitely is not the PSP for me. Even if it was priced at $180 instead of $250 the PSP-3000 would still be a better value for gaming because it plays both PSN games AND UMD games. Cheaper games, more games, used games, loaned games.

All I saying is that your review is partially flawed because it assumes the device is meant for existing PSP owners, which its just not

I would then argue the flaw is creating a product that cuts out your own fans. Why would you willfully exclude people who have supported your products in the past?

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you haven't realised its not intended for you

I'm a hardcore gamer who also loves gadgets. I like Sony as a company and I think the PS3 and PSP are home to some of the best games on the market. So why wouldn't Sony create a product for people like me?

Sony is aiming for gamers who weren't enthusiastic enough to buy a PSP until now, and it's hoping they'll NOW be enthusiastic enough to pay even more money for hardware that can only play games that are more expensive that what you can buy in the store. The gamer that will spend 40 minutes to download something so they don't have to spend 15 minutes driving to a store to buy a physical product they can sell later.

Holy crap, that thing seems like a big bag of fail. Pretty disappointing really, it seems like Sony had a golden opportunity to break open a new aspect of the market and is completely flubbing it up, at least on the new hardware side. Hopefully they'll see more success making it work with the old hardware.

On another note, did nobody proofread this article before it went live? It was one of the messiest I've seen in a long time.

Ben, you just proved you don't understand the PSP-Go, or its intended comsumers. I'm not sure I can explain it much simpler. This is a PSP-Go, ie GO, its the more portable version of the PSP-3000. To make it more portable, they removed the UMD drive, something that many people have complained about over the entirety of the PSP's life. Thats it, thats what you get with the PSP-Go. Its just smaller, and you don't have to carry around a bunch of UMD's around wtih you. Its not a PSP2, its just a smaller PSP-3000 with no UMD drive. If, like yourself, and like DaveSimmons, you value buying second hand games cheap, and obviously don't mind the size of the current PSP, then yes, the PSP-Go will make no sense. Buy the PSP-3000 instead (or its rumoured successor, PSP-4000). Thats Sony's product for people like you. They aren't excluding you, as they already have a product for you, PSP-3000, which as you have already said, it has the same functionality as the Go (minus bluetooth).

Ben asked...I like Sony as a company and I think the PS3 and PSP are home to some of the best games on the market. So why wouldn't Sony create a product for people like me?

Is that a rhetorical question? You seemed to have answered it before you even asked it.

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Sony is aiming for gamers who weren't enthusiastic enough to buy a PSP until now, and it's hoping they'll NOW be enthusiastic enough to pay even more money for hardware that can only play games that are more expensive that what you can buy in the store. The gamer that will spend 40 minutes to download something so they don't have to spend 15 minutes driving to a store to buy a physical product they can sell later.

That customer? I just don't think they really exist.

They do exist, only they're buying iPod Touches instead. Also the whole point about long downloads while not being able to play anything is kinda retarded. Most portables don't do title downloads while playing. The iPhone and Touch can (10MB limit on the mobile radio), but by the time you've downloaded something that would take that long over WiFi while gaming, your device's battery would've expired. Nor is wireless you're only option as you can download PSP titles on your PS3 or PC while gaming on your Go.

Ben, you just proved you don't understand the PSP-Go, or its intended comsumers. I'm not sure I can explain it much simpler.

Not to speak for Ben, but it seems to me that he understands the intended audience just fine - he just doesn't think it's a very big audience.

As CaribouLou said, the only thing the Go has...ummm....going for it compared to the 3000 is the size. Everything else is either a wash (the 3000 can also use downloaded games) or (in Ben's opinion) worse (the price, the ergonomics, the proprietary cables, the need to have a PS3 as an adapter, the lock-in to the Sony store).

So even if there was a potentially large market for a smaller sized PSP (which I think there probably is) Sony have so loaded up the negative side of the comparison that it immediately excludes a large part of that potential market.

Some people will still go for it - as you say, the portability will trump all the negatives. But think how many more people would have gone for it if they'd taken out even one of those negatives (proprietary cables for instance, or provided the rumored UMD exchange program).

I agree with czechery. The PSPgo is exactly the PSP I've always wanted. I've always wanted a PSP but it's always been too big for me to actually buy one. I don't care about UMD compatibility or old accessories. I don't even care about used games, since I avoid Gamestop as much as possible. The pricing for the announced lineup of games now on PSN doesn't exactly support the nebulous FUD floating around about being gouged on digital pricing, and the Nippon Ichii sale going on right now gives us every reason to be hopeful.

Bottom line, the PSPgo will give me a easily pocketed games machine that will also be a good enough media player for me to not need to carry my iPod Video at the same time.

Too many PSPgo reviews make two flawed assumptions about the potential buyers, that they 1, already have an PSP and UMD games and 2, also have a iPhone or iPod Touch. I have neither and as such, the PSPgo, even at it's current price, makes a good deal of sense for me. In fact, my greatest reservation is the mysterious absence of the PSP Final Fantasy games from PSN. Crisis Core, Tactics and Dissidia would be some of my first purchases.

raphael_as, I agree, those criticisms are valid. But the others didn't need to be there and just showed a lack of prior thought before the article was written. Its kind of like criticising a motorcycle for not being a car. They both have the same basic function, but if you wanted a car, then you would see very little positive points to a motorcycle (what? this thing falls over all the time, it doesn't have reverse, the weather protection is shithouse and the interior noise is too damn loud).

Gee, a bunch of people with very low post counts and semi-recent registration dates disagree with this article. How very...unexpected.

As for this device, I don't currently own a portable gaming system(besides my NeoGeo Pocket Color), and while I'd love one unfortunatly this does not fit the bill. I presume, by the statements by some, this system should appeal to me, but unfortunatly it took the features I disliked about the PSP already and made them worse. Primarily the controls, which sound atrocious. The original PSP is terrible on the hands for any length of time(have attempted using my brother's), and from the sounds of it that has been somehow degraded.

At any rate, I guess I'll have to keep waiting and hope someone releases a handheld worth owning. This certainly is not it.

Its kind of like criticising a motorcycle for not being a car. They both have the same basic function, but if you wanted a car, then you would see very little positive points to a motorcycle (what? this thing falls over all the time, it doesn't have reverse, the weather protection is shithouse and the interior noise is too damn loud).

That's a good analogy. It's been strange watching the internet completely lose its shit over the PSPgo in this really absurd manner. If you start from the premise that some people will never buy the PSP-3000 due to its size, most of the "negatives" about the Go simply don't apply.

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Not to speak for Ben, but it seems to me that he understands the intended audience just fine - he just doesn't think it's a very big audience.

Then that is pure speculation. There's no evidence one way or another. If you can demonstrate the audience does not exist, by all means bring it up. But to condemn the Go on such an assumption is just untenable.

This is very true, if I wrote this comparing the PSP Go to an Apple-created music player with a touch screen... okay, it would still wouldn't stack up very well. You're just going to have to forgive me for judging a piece of hardware aimed at the gaming market as a gaming machine.

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They do exist, only they're buying iPod Touches instead.

If Sony meant for this to be a portal for digital music playback and sales it failed even worse than I described in this review.

So much wasted potential. Digital downloads make so much sense for handhelds. It improves battery life, leads to quicker boot and cheap, simple mini-games are a good fit for a system often used for 10 minute gaming sessions. And by yanking out the UMD reader, they could have reduced manufacturing costs and price. By cutting out the game distribution middle man, they could have reduced the game price.

If the Go had been $30 cheaper than the regular PSP, and all games where $5 cheaper when downloaded, Sony would have had a very interesting product. Something that could have easily held it's own against the iTouch and the DSi. And if they'd designed the system right, they could have done it while keeping their current profit margins.

The more I think about it, the more obvious it becomes that the no UMD transfer thing is actually Sonys _giggest_ blunder. Why? Because 99 % of all the potential early adopters already own a PSP. But very few of them will dump their current UMD collection for the Go.

If Sony continues this trend expect a $500 PS3 that doesn't play Blu-ray discs

Yeah. Nice timing, one month after they dropped the price of the PS3 to $299. Awesome observation.

Re: PSP Go. No thanks. My 2000 is doing me just fine, thank you very much. Really, aside from the somewhat smaller size (which is not considered a feature by everyone), what is really new and wonderful that this updated model brings to the table? I can't really see why anyone would be swayed into getting this thing. Blows my mind. What perplexes me eve more is why they delayed the JP release until a full month after the US release, where people here will undoubtedly buy this thing in proportionately greater numbers for reasons - other than brand loyalty - which elude me.